Stories about: Pixar

Bruce Perens is ubiquitous. At least, it's sometimes seemed that way; he's known to computing specialists as the primary author of the open source definition, the former project leader for Debian, a senior programmer with Pixar, the creator of Electric Fence, and a prolific advocate of GNU/Linux and related open source matters.

Guy teaches himself 3-D animation on his Mac. Guy makes animated movie of green, karaoke-singing alien. Guy's animated movie takes the Internet by storm. Guy winds up with a job at Pixar Studios.

Modeling and animating organic creatures and objects is a difficult task no matter what program you use, but Animation Master Millennium makes it easier by providing 3-D tools that do more than just rotate logos and shapes. The latest incarnation of Hash Inc.'s venerable 3-D modeling, animation, and rendering tool offers a powerful combination of features and options traditionally found only in more-expensive programs.

Hollywood. People come here from all over the world in search of fame and fortune. Some find both. Most find neither. But scrape off the Tinseltown stardust and there's a plain old biz beneath the show: a film industry that in recent years has experienced both feast and famine. Paramount's 1997 Titanic raked in $600 million at the box office and put director James Cameron on top of the world. In 1998, Universal Studios Inc.'s Babe: Pig in the City took in $18 million, cost a porky $85 million to make and (along with a few other underperforming titles) cost Universal Chairman Casey Silver his job. In Hollywood, the technical term for that kind of ROI is bomb.

New Year's Day, 2003: As I sit in my Web-enabled, ergonomically correct armchair, with its magnetically-levitating suspension system and trendy hemp upholstery, dictating my 269th column to the interactive armrest, I'm amazed at how far we've come since 1998.